Well, made it home safe after a good weekend. I took pictures but have yet to sort out a web page so in the interim here's my report.
Late Firday I finally convinced Ian Walkley to come up to resolve the odd number of players and even better persuaded him that we'd stay overnight. We got there in plenty of time, said hello to the usual suspects and found a café for a greasy breakfast.
For those who have been on another planet over the last two months I was fielding a Napoleonic army with:
| Madame Blanchard | (Airboat general) |
| Captain Otaire | (Airboat) |
| Cavalry Corps | (Riders * 2) |
| Regiment de Ligne | (Spears * 4) |
| Grand Battery | (Artillery * 2) |
The Stronghold was an inn acting as Napoleon's HQ with Boney himself and some staff.
Game1.
I invaded against Brian who had an Arthurian army sans Lancelot,
which was nice, as it would have been a shame to take on a fellow
Frenchie. He had hero general, hero, paladin, 4 knights and 2
shooters. Oh great. Terrain provided me with an anchor on one flank
and I never really moved from there for fear of my airboats being
dragged down by King Arthur and his poncey Round Table. Brian
advanced and tried a flanking move but I was able to counter the
threat and Brian withdrew to go for a frontal assault. I had an
embarrassing amount of good dice so was able to move airboats around
covering threats. As Brian came in the artillery opened up an blew
away a knight, bad pips meant he could not reorganise his line so he
went in just on one side with knights and paladin. The paladin lost
to artillery and my spears held againt his knight whilst my rider was
just pushed back. Things went from bad to worse for Brian as he lost
a shooter, another knight and hero in subsequent turns giving me the
14AP for victory. Had Brian had the aerial hero or even some decent
dice rolls I think I might have been back in Paris for dejeuner.
Game 2.
I invaded again, this time againt Neil Mason who had the Dover Castle
garrison of 1216; hero General, 6 shooters and 4 knights. Nice
Stronghold of the compulsory White Cliffs complete with sand castle
on the base with the Cross of St George stuck in the top. Neil
deployed well, I deployed like a nonce by splitting the airboats
(won't do that again) and trying to think I could sit on a hill.
Well, I could have had I stuck to the plan instead of feinting left
and then having to pull back. Neil didn't just counter my feint but
then pursued me all the way to my baseline. Madam Blanchard took for
ever to come across from the right to help out and arrived just in
time to be dragged to the ground kicking and screaming whilst flanked
by a shooter. Airboats against heros don't do well. Dover prevents
Napoleon from having a secure supply line and wins having killed my
general and 5AP to no losses.
Game 3.
I defended against Peter Duckworth who had a well themed army with
just a tad of political sentiment about it – Arthur Scargill,
miners, flying pickets, Ben Elton, incorruptible journalists, and
even a stand to represent himself as he was in those giddy days. We
both deployed and went at it. Which is where it went wrong for me.
Another leasson learnt is to keep Madame Blanchard behind the line
and anchor a flank. Not let Scargill,or indeed any other Hero leap
atop her balloon and stick pins in it, I did manage to blow away the
flying pickets (flyer – of course) before she went down but that was
it. Very quick game, 3AP and general down to 2AP. It was never clear
if the army were defenders of England or not, Peter enigmatically
called them `The Enemy Within' and diplomatically left it to you to
decide. He's mellowed since the strike obviously :-)
Game 4.
I defended against Ken McKewan who had an undead army (behemoth
general, hero, 2 blades, 4 spear, 2 shooter); apparently they did
invade England, way back. I bought it any way. I defended and this
time anchored correctly. Ken put his hero to his left with his
shooters to the right so in turn one my airboats swung left to flank
him whilst my line wheeled right. My airboats with rider support took
on his shooters for a push and shove match and eventually I got one
of them. In the meantime Ken assaulted my line with his Blades , hero
and behemoth. Bad pips meant he could not deploy for optimum match
ups and his behemoth general got 2 12lbs cannon balls at point blank.
Dried up bones don't take that sort of force too well and down went
his general. General down and a few AP lost meant victory to me.
Bonus game.
Just as Ken and I finished two gents were watching with interest. Turns
out one had the rules but never yet played so we invited them to
play. One elected to play with Ken as his adivsor using his undead vs
my Napoleonics. It turned out to be an extremely good game and very
close (he won by 13AP to 10AP), and we were able to show how the game
worked at a good pace as the game developed slowly. In fact the bloke
watching rushed of to Spirit Games midway through as he though it looked
just great. So knock up two more converts for Ken and I.
Some of the armies there were very nicely done, Seb would have been proud of Alan's Hitler pastiche. James's Home Guard were very nice with superb touches on the terrain front. Dominic's Welsh all in national costume was a good gag. Peter's Miner's was well worked. Benedict's Stronghold with a beached longship was nice.
It was nice to see a new face, namely one Bill Peck, who was not only at his first tournament but also playing his first games vs opponents (a opposed to solo) play. And he knew a point of rules better that the rest of us !! Impudent upstart !!
I bought a couple of boardgames that looked fun and also bought DBA2.2. The evening was spent playing some fun games, in particular some German game where you have to collect chicken feed and chickens. You had to be there really. Also a bonus was five people coughed up for Berkeley and Neil Mason booked 2 spots for him and son last night, putting us on 27 entrants now (even with clashing with Clevedon DBM again).
The scoring worked well enough I thought so is confirmed for Berkeley. Some draws are inevitable, but at least they score any AP destroyed if they get stuck in, arranged draws will get no AP value so the players will in effect be penalised.
Many thanks to Richard and Ken for running the show, most enjoyable as ever and a few beers in the evening were most welcome.